Now you see him...

RE: Tibullus I.2.41-42

Still, your husband will not believe this, just as 

The honest-speaking witch promised me with her magical aid.

For Augustan Literature today we read Tibullus I.1-3. In the second poem from his first book of elegies, Tibullus speaks of having secured the aid of a sorceress, who has cast a spell to make Tibullus' love Delia's husband (for want of a better term) unable to believe an affair is going on between those two. 

He will be able to believe nothing from anyone about us,

not even himself, if he himself should see us in the soft bed. 

Still, keep away from others: for he will perceive

everything else: Only me will he not perceive. (I.2.55-58)

Tea-Time with Argus

Re: Ovid, Metamorphoses I.679-684

By this new voice and art Juno's guardian was captivated.
"Whoever you are, you may sit with me on this rock,"
said Argus, "For there are not lusher grasses for flocks
in any place, and you see a shade suited for shepherds."
Atlas' grandson sat and detained the passing day with talk of many things,
with conversation and by playing on his joined
pipes he tried to overcome the vigilant eyes. 

A cartoon for Ovid's version of the tale of Io from his Metamorphoses. Io, having been raped by Jupiter, gets turned into a cow by him in hopes of hiding his infidelity from Juno. Not fooled, Juno slyly asks Jupiter for the cow--which it would be suspicious not to give--and thereupon puts her rival (paelex) under the watch of Argus, a one-hundred eyed monster. At length, Jupiter sends Mercury to free Io.

The translated quote above is from the point at which Mercury, disguised as a shepherd, comes up playing on his pipes. Argus invites him to rest with him in the shade. He seemed like a very decent chap, who would have offered Mercury cup of tea if the Greeks had had it. But he winds up beheaded by Mercury all the same. : \

Aerial Antics

Plato, Apology 19c, referencing Aristophanes, Clouds

Socrates as depicted by Aristophanes, being carried about in a basket and saying he is walking in the air. A doodle from last semester.

Quomodo pecunia colenda

"How to grow money"

Part of our reading for Greek New Testament today was the parable of the slaves and the talents from Matthew 25:14-30.

My take is that the slave who buried his one talent wasn't doing wrong...he just had the wrong idea about how to grow his money. Get it?

Plato in a Happy Meal

Plato's Cave, with light-up fire and assorted shadow-puppets on a wheel

Inspired by the "Allegory of the Cave" from Plato's Republic VII

Felicia Lupercalia

Happy Lupercalia, folks.

The pagan ancestor of our St. Valentine's Day, the Lupercalia was a religious festival in Alba Longa, the parent city of Rome, and still celebrated in the latter. It was celebrated by young Roman men (pubes Romanae) running around town naked save for a goat's skin (exuviae capri) with which they would hit women hoping to become pregnant. This odd display was to honor Pan. You may ask, "How did this tradition get started?" I don't know. And the Romans weren't sure either. 

But if you're thinking Valentine's Day is the pits, just be glad there aren't guys running around hitting people with goat skins in the nude...unless you're into that sort of thing. O.o

nec res intercipe nostras

Ovid, Metamorphoses IX.122

Another cartoon from Ovid last semester. This time from the tale of Hercules and Nessus the centaur, which sows the seeds for Hercules' nasty end. 

The situation was this: Hercules is returning home with his bride Deianeira and they come to a river swollen by flooding, which Hercules doesn't know how to get his wife across. Nessus shows up and offers to carry Deianeira on his back while Hercules swims. With no misgivings whatsoever, Hercules hands his frightened wife over to the centaur. But when he reaches the other shore, he finds that Nessus is running away from the other shore with is wife. 

Ovid gives Hercules a shouted speech to Nessus. Most humorously in line 122 Hercules tells Nessus: "nec res intercipe nostras" -- literally "and don't steal our things!" But he's talking about a person, viz. his wife Deianeira. I think it shows the kind of brutish mentality of Hercules. 

To make a long story short, Hercules shoots an arrow through Nessus' back and kills him. Nessus gives his blood-soaked cloak to Deianeira saying it will make Hercules love her if he is ever unfaithful and, years later, she fears this to be the case, sends the cloak to Hercules, and when he puts it on it burns him alive--and that's how he died. 

Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck...

Tarpeia Oppressa Scutis

Cf. Propertius, IV.4 and Livy, Ab Urbe Condita I.11

In Augustan Literature class, we were assigned Propertius IV.4 which tells the story of Tarpeia, the Vestal who betrayed the Roman citadel to the Sabines and was crushed beneath their shields. In Propertius' version her motivation was an infatuation with their commander, Tatius. 

Pearls Before Swine

Matthew 7:6. 

This semester I am taking Greek New Testament. For the last class we were reading the bit in Matthew where Christ tells his disciples and the multitude not to throw their pearls before pigs. In Greek (and Latin) the word for "pearl" is "margarita." Hence the drunken pigs. Yeah... 

Medea the Magician of the Metamorphoses

"Ta-Da! And now, I'll need a volunteer from the audience..."

Ovid, Metamorphoses VII.309-323

One of my many drawings from Ovid class last semester. Ovid tells the story of how Medea uses her sorcery to restore Aeson, Jason's father, to youth. She then, for unknown reasons, goes to the daughters of Pelias, also an aged man. She demonstrates to them her powers of rejuvenation by taking an old ram and restoring him to being a lamb. 

Impressed by this, the daughters of Pelias believe she will do the same thing to rejuvenate Pelias, but instead she merely gets them to kill him (killing the individual being treated was part of the spell) and then takes off. As it was Halloween I depicted that scene thus:

Metamorphoses, VII.331 ff. 

Rosa Romana

"Rosie the Roman"

In my Augustan Literature Survey class we read the Laudatio Turiae, a funerary inscription from Rome describing the life of an exceptional woman from the days of the Civil Wars and afterwards--who ensured her murdered parents were avenged, protected her and her husband's inheritance, supported her husband when he was hiding from the proscriptions, and secured his eventual pardon.

Her heroism on the home-front inspired this bit of anachronism.

Socrates: The Wisest Man in the World

Top: "He can make the weaker argument the stronger. He is the Wisest Man in the World."

Speech bubble 1: "I don't always defend myself in the Agora, but if I do, I end my life."

Speech bubble 2: "Investigate things, my friends."

I took Intermediate Greek last semester and in that class we read the Apology of Socrates by Plato. I drew this in regards to his claim that the oracle at Delphi had said there was no one wiser than Socrates...so naturally the Dos Equis advertisements came to mind. Even though I don't drink. 

Praefatio

Salvete, omnes. Welcome to my blog/web-comic. 

Allow me to introduce myself: My name is Benjamin F. Ossoff and I am a twenty-five year old Post-Baccalaureate Classics student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I also received my Bachelor's Degree in History with an Ancient/Medieval concentration and an Archaeology Minor in 2010 from UNC. As such, I am studying and reading things in Greek and Latin or otherwise related to Ancient History a lot.

Because of my idiosyncracies, I tend to react to what I have been reading by drawing cartoons. Sometimes I do this on paper, but more often I use the medium available to me when I'm at school all day: the black/white-board. If I think what I drew was good enough to share I take a picture with my tablet gizmo and post it to facebook. 

But I want to expand my audience to see if there are more people out there who will appreciate my sense of humor. Hey! Maybe I can become rich and famous. Or maybe you can just have a good laugh. 

I am not going to commit myself to post new comics on a regular basis, but I will post things when I have something to post. That being said, I hope you will enjoy the cartoons I post on this blog and I welcome (polite and friendly) comments. Also, if you want to share these cartoons with your friends or colleagues, please do. All I want is to be credited as the author/"artist." Thanks and enjoy!

Warning: This Cartoon Makes No Sense.